Flight Attendant Shares 9 Reasons Flight Crew Might Deny You Boarding Your Plane
From attire to hygiene and, yes, your salty attitude, flight crews have lots of reasons to give you the boot.
Pawel Gaul / Getty Images Signature / Canva Pro At this point, seeing someone get kicked off a plane has seemingly become an everyday occurrence — even if we haven't witnessed it ourselves firsthand, we've surely seen the gazillions of videos on social media showing unruly passengers getting the boot.
But as Jeenie, a flight attendant and TikToker, showed in a recent video, there are far more reasons flight crews can have you removed than just being a jerk, and some of them might surprise you.
The flight attendant shared 9 reasons you might be denied boarding when flying:
It's not just your imagination or merely a social media trend. Incidents where unruly passengers have to be denied boarding or escorted off commercial planes really are staggeringly higher today than before 2020.
According to the FAA, incidents declined in 2022 and 2023 from their highs in 2021. But they're still markedly elevated compared to 2019 before all the uproars about masking on planes became an issue. As of June 2024, the FAA has already recorded nearly 1,000 incidents.
Jeenie recently gave some insight into how some of these incidents start — with passengers making nine key mistakes that present a clear risk to flight attendants' primary job onboard a plane: ensuring everyone can travel safely.
1. You appear to be sick
"If flight attendants sense that you might be a little sick and about to puke, they can deny you boarding," Jeenie explained.
The reasons for this should be obvious: If you appear to be that ill, you're not only potentially contagious but there's a high possibility the flight crew is going to have to spend their time and resources cleaning up your puke or worse, like that whole diarrhea-down-the-plane-aisle incident that happened a while back.
Worse still, your illness may necessitate rerouting the plane or making an emergency landing for medical attention, and nobody needs that!
2. You appear to be intoxicated
By now, we all know that if you knock too many back at the airport bar, you're likely to get the old heave-ho when you start to board if you appear to be drunk.
Flight attendants have explained that this is in part because their primary job is to ensure passengers can travel safely, especially if there is a potential crash situation.
They can't really do that part of their job if they have to manage your drunk behind, especially if you've gotten downright belligerent!
3. You show up barefoot.
"I don't know why you would do this," Jeenie said, "but people do." Aside from how disgustingly unsanitary this is — just imagine how filthy the airplane bathroom floor is, for starters — it's also a safety hazard in the event of an evacuation.
Just put your dang shoes on, you weirdos!
4. You're too large to buckle a seatbelt around you, even with an extender
"For our larger passengers, if you cannot safely put on your seatbelt with a seatbelt extender, the flight attendants can deny you boarding," Jeenie explained.
Of course, airlines should carry seatbelt extenders big enough to accommodate any body size. But until they do, people with larger bodies can't fly safely without a seatbelt buckled and could be denied boarding.
Flight crews also urge customers not to rely on seatbelt extenders they buy themselves. They're often not FAA-approved and have functionalities that can be dangerous should something go wrong mid-flight.
5. You are very visibly pregnant
Jeenie explained that you may be denied boarding "if you look really pregnant — like really, really," unless you have a doctor's note proving how far along you are in your pregnancy.
This is because flying while pregnant is typically cut off after 36 weeks for domestic flights and 28-35 weeks for international flights due to the increased risk of miscarriage, premature labor, and other dangerous complications during the third trimester. Having any of those happen mid-flight is seriously dangerous stuff.
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6. You have bad body odor
"Before flight, it might be wise for you to get a family or friend to sniff you," Jeenie joked. "Because if you have bad body odor, we can deny you boarding."
Obviously, nobody, especially your seatmates, wants to be locked in a narrow tube with your stank!
7. You're bringing something on board that stinks
This rule can go beyond just body odor, though. "Speaking of bad smells," Jeenie said, "if you're bringing in something as well that stinks" — like stinky food or something gross in your carry-on — "well, we can also deny your boarding for that."
You've been warned, people who cook eggs and fish in the office microwave!
8. You're dressed inappropriately
"Some airlines kind of like have a dress code" without actually having a formal dress code, Jeenie explained. Meaning, that while it's not a hard and fast rule, your outfit might be subject to the flight crew's judgment.
"Clearly, if you're naked, you're not getting on," Jeenie said, "but some airlines will actually deny you boarding if you're wearing [something] a little bit too sexy."
Leave your halter tops and Speedos in your carry-ons, folks.
9. You're just kind of a jerk
Jeenie's final reason is the one we all know so well — and have come to dread. "Do you just have a bad attitude problem?" she said. "If you're kind of an [expletive], we can deny you boarding. So be kind."
Seriously. Enough with the drama. Flying is already miserable enough!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.